Life as We Know It
by jasonX65
Summary: Jake, Jaycee, and friends find themselves in a world destroyed by the dead. Do they have what it takes to survive? NOTICE- Does not feature any of the characters from the TV series. Co-authored.
1. Chapter One: Another Day

Chapter 1

Another Day

I sat in my AP English 12 class. Today was just another day in the boring life of me, Jake Sanders. I've never been the most popular kid at Billings High, but I'm not at the bottom of the food chain either. I sit in the front row fourth seat over. During this class, I spend most of my time day dreaming about how I'd rather be at home playing a game or reading a comic book. Actually, I do that in most of my classes. The only one that really keeps my attention for a little while is World Myth. I've always had fun with that class. Suddenly, I become aware of something poking my shoulder. I snap out of my day dream to see my friend Danielle, a girl with long red hair and a million freckles, tapping my shoulder.

"What?", I ask her.

"Mrs. Perez asked you a question," she replies.

I looked to the front of the room where Mrs. Perez, a stern looking old woman, stood with her arms folded, glaring at me. "You know, Mr. Sanders," she began ", it wouldn't hurt to pay attention every now and then. Now, answer my question. Why did Grendel want to kill everyone who was inside Herot?", she asked.

Easy. I'd already read _Beowulf_, before I even signed up for this class. "He did it because he was the son of Cain, the first murderer, who was cursed by God. Grendel was a joyless soul who didn't like hearing the loud celebration coming from within Herot.", I stated.

Mrs. Perez nodded and then went on with her teaching. I went back to daydreaming. Yup, this was definitely going to be like every other day in my life.

AP English 12 finally ended, and I was glad to be done with it until 8:25 AM tomorrow. Now I was sitting in the library, taking notes for my online class, World Myth.

Sean O'Riley sat to my left, playing Red Remover. He was also enrolled in World Myth, but he didn't take the class seriously. Actually, I don't think he turned in any of the assignments for it. But he was a pretty cool guy. He's the quarterback on the school's football team, blonde hair, blue eyes. Most girls would kill for him.

To my right sat Catrina Williams, the most annoying girl to ever attend Billings High. For some reason, she thought I was her friend. She never seemed to understand my obvious messages to shove off. She wears glasses that make her eyes look monstrous. She has long, ugly brownish-blonde hair and horrendous buck teeth that make me think of a horse.

"So, how are you and Brianna?", she asked me.

Brianna is my girlfriend, whom I've been with since the beginning of junior year. Catrina feels the need to ask me about her every time she sees me. Which is usually three to four times a day.

"We're good," I reply, trying to be nice. _Always treat others the way you want to be treatd, Jake,_ I hear my mother's voice in my head. She was always big on making me a polite individual. "How are you and David?", I ask, pretending like I give a fuck how her and her boyfriend are.

"We're doing good. Last night he took me out to dinner at my favorite restaraunt and-"

That's where I stopped listening. She always feels the need to go into superbly long detail on everything. The girl even tried to tell me about the first time they had sex in detail. Which I did not want to know about.

Catrina keeps babbling on. I look over to Sean and roll my eyes. He grins. I go back to working on my World Myth work.

The bell rings, signaling the end of 2nd block. Time to head to 3rd, Prob/Stats. Joy. I love that class. Not. But first, there's a ten minute break between classes, which I plan to spend with my main group of friends.

I walk into the over-flowing-with-annoying-people-hallway, and start to make my way to our hangout, the end of the hallway, next to the giant set of windows that look out on the small courtyard that houses seven tables that you can sit at and eat lunch with your friends if you so desire. We usually do not desire.

As I reach the end of the hall, I am greeted by a kiss from Brianna, and a punch to the shoulder from Cody. Also present are Cara, Cody's girlfriend and my ex-girlfriend (yeah, talk about awkward), Luke, Sean, Danielle, and Haley.

"Did you finish that homework for Prob/Stats?", Luke, one of my best friends, a tall guy with ginger hair that came down into his eyes, asked me almost immediately.

"We had homework?", I gasp.

"Luke, I did it. Jake, do you ever do your homework for that class?", Danielle asks. "I mean, I know you don't pay attention in English, but you know all of it already. I can tell you don't know math as well..."

I purposefully never did my homework for Prob/Stats because I didn't like the teacher, Mr. Quillen. Any way possible to make him mad, I'd do it.

"You told me you would start doing your homework!", Brianna, long black hair, freckles that are cute in the right way, whines, frowning at me.

"I do it for all the other classes, baby," I whine back.

For some reason, Brianna thought I wanted to get held back so I can graduate with her. She's a junior this year. I wouldn't mind being held back for her, but I'm ready to be done with this hell-hole for good.

"Enough with all your lovey-dovey talk," Haley, Brianna's best friend, a girl with shoulder length brown hair and red-rimmed glasses, says. "Brianna and I have important matters to attend to." She turns to Brianna and begins to talk about some of her latest gossip news.

Cody, a short guy with brownish-blonde hair, Luke, Sean, and I talk about video games we've been playing lately. Cara, a girl with shoulder length bleach-blonde hair, sighs, crosses her arms dramatically and stomps off. Cody runs after her while the rest of us laugh.

Unfortunately, Haley points out that we have three minutes to get to our classes, so we all set off in our different directions. Luke, Danielle and I make it to Mr. Quillens room just as the bell rings.

After he calls role, he takes up our homework. Whenever I tell him I didn't bother to do mine, he rants and raves about how I need to put in more effort and then tells me that as punishment, I can stay after school tonight and do some work in his class room to make sure I do it. Then he goes back to teaching.

I decide to text one of my college friends, Jaycee. She used to attend Billings, but she graduated when I was a sophmore. I pull out my phone and type a message to her. This is my daily routine. Little did I know that my life was about to be destroyed forever.

_**A/N- Hope you guys didn't get too bored with my ramblings. Had to let you get to know the characters a little bit before the crazy stuff starts happening. This story is going to be co-authored by myself and a friend. Chapter 2 will be written by her. Prepare to meet Jaycee and her friends in the next chapter. :)**_


	2. Chapter Two: Daily Routine

**Chapter 2: Daily Routine**

My phone goes off right as I submit the last of my homework for the weekend. Without looking away from the screen, I reach for my phone and pick it up. "_I hate this class,_" the message reads. Jake.

"_Stop texting in class_," I reply, smiling to myself. I sit there for another few minutes, contemplating whether or not I should get my book back out. _No, _I decide, standing up. Everything is packed away nicely in my backpack, and it's only Friday. I have the whole weekend to do nothing. This usually happens, because I'm such an overachiever. Because I'm so pathetic, I consider Jake Sanders to be one of my best friends. He's four years younger than me, but still.

"Going out," Mom calls from the kitchen. I leave the study and walk through the house, catching her as she starts out the door. She has to walk with a cane, because a doctor botched her knee replacement a few years ago. She looks back at me and asks, "Need anything while I'm gone?"

"Nope," I say, shaking my head. She nods and leaves, letting the door slam behind her. Dad won't be home from work for a while, so the house is all mine. While I'm poking around in the fridge, my phone goes off again. I head back to the study, ready to scold him for ignoring the rules, but it's not from Jake.

"Hey," I say, bringing the phone to my ear. "What's"-

"Is your mom gone yet?" It's my best friend, Emily.

"How'd you know she left?" I ask, laughing. The hallway darkens momentarily, and I notice clouds forming outside when I pass by the window.

"I'm sitting in the driveway," she tells me, and I nearly choke. I go to the front door and look outside again and sure enough, there she is right behind my car.

"Yeah she's gone," I say. "You should know that if you're stalking me."

"You forgot, didn't you?" Her tone is scolding. I probably did forget something. That happens more often than it should. Anyway, Emily Scott has been my best friend for years. We met in the eighth grade, which was about seven years ago.

"Obviously."

"I'm spending the night tonight!" she groans, sounding exasperated. I watch her as she pushes the car door open and steps out. The phone beeps and I realize she hung up on me. I don't get how she can drive without crashing, because she can barely see over the wheel. She tosses a duffel bag over her shoulder and starts walking toward me.

"Why'd you wait until mom left?" I ask when she's close enough. I wrap an arm around her, mostly because she hates it, and her head fits under my arm. "You're so short."

"_Thank you_," she says, rolling her eyes. "And you know your mom hates me." We head back through the house to my room, where she drops her bag on the floor and plops down on the bed.

"She doesn't hate you," I lie. Mom has never liked Em. Not when we first met, and definitely not now. She was in her fifth relationship for the year, and it was only March. What was his name again? I could never remember. Of course, I didn't really make an effort to, either. "She just thinks you move too fast with guys."

"Whatever." She dismisses my comment with a wave of her hand and starts pawing through the stuff on my headboard. Her fingers fall on my journal and she opens it up to the last page full of writing. "This thin is falling apart." As she says that, a page slips from the binding and floats to the floor. She snatches it up and reads the words filling the page.

"_Petals blooming, stems extending_." She stops after the first line and raises her head to look at me. "What is this?" She flips the page over and over in her hands, but she doesn't read any more of it. I take it from her and stuff it back in the journal.

"It's about nature," I say, putting the book back over my bed. Before I can sit down or say anything else, I hear a knock at the door. Emily tenses up and I'm immediately suspicious. I glare at her. "Who's at the door?"

"Nobody."

I stomp through the house and look through the peephole. It's a guy, but I've never seen him before. His glasses are crooked on his face, and he barely has any hair. Emily stands right behind me, and I just _know _that it's her stupid boyfriend. Without turning my head, I ask, "How does he know where I live?"

"I told him," she says slowly, breaking into an awkward smile. I let my head hang for a moment, and then I adjust my own glasses before they fall.

"God," I sigh, reaching for the doorknob. "What's his name?"

"Scott."

I open the door and give a greeting, and he smiles in return. Then I step aside so he can see who he's actually here for. They wave at each other and embrace, and I gag a little. They stay that way for a full minute, and then Emily turns so they both face me. "Scott, Jaycee," she says, giving me another hopeful smile.

"Hi," I say curtly, ignoring the hand he extends in my direction. I leave them in the living room and head for the bathroom. I stand in front of the mirror for a few minutes, and I let my head fall forward enough that my hair gets in my face. Suddenly there is a wall of black between me and the door, and I'd prefer that to _Scott_.

"Jay," Emily calls out, and the doorknob jiggles. I yank the door open and there she stands. She was smart enough to leave Scott elsewhere. I scrape my hair back as I explain.

"I have nothing to say about him," I tell her, but it's only halfway true. I have plenty of things to say about him, but I don't want to say them while he's here. And then an idea forms in my head. "But if he's allowed to be here, then so is"-

"No," she interjects, before I can say the name. She shakes her head furiously, blond curls bouncing. "Don't you dare say"-

"I'm going to invite Phoebe to this sleepover," I say cutting her off. I reach into my pocket for my phone and she sighs heavily. "Or you can tell Scott to leave. Either way works."

"Fine," she says, and I relax a bit, thinking she's really going to do it. "_Invite _her. Scott has the right to be here."

"I'm going to ignore how wrong that statement is," I laugh as I dial the number. "Now if you'll excuse me for a minute…"

. . . .

"Hey love!" Phoebe says to me when I answer the door. We hug quickly and then I step back so she can come inside. "I have to admit, I was surprised when you called. We haven't seen each other in a while." Phoebe's been another good friend for as long as I can remember, but lately we've been drifting apart. She and Emily are constantly arguing over who's a worse friend for me. Frankly, I say both of them suck, but nobody's perfect.

"Better late than never, though, right?" I say, grinning as I shut the door behind us. She walks into the kitchen and looks around. Emily was in my room, pouting. I gave her the choice, though. It was going to be a long night, though, because the feeling was mutual. Phoebe didn't like Emily, either. "I should warn you"-

"Well, look who it is," Emily announces from the hallway. Too late.

"Eww," is all Phoebe says. She glares at me, but I know she'll forgive me. Emily will, too, but it'll take longer. "What's she doing here?"

"We're going to have a sleepover," I say proudly. "All three of us."

"You mean all four of us," Emily corrects me. Scott walks out then, and I clench a fist behind my back. "Because, after all, you said he could stay if you got to invite _her_."

"I never said he could stay all night," I argue. "You know mom would never let that happen."

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Emily says, and I gape at her.

"You can't possibly be stupid enough to think Jay's mom won't find out," Phoebe says, beating me to it. "She knows everything, before we even do it." My phone rings before I can say anything.

"I'm on my way to the hospital," mom says, and my jaw drops.

"What's wrong?"

"It's your grandfather," she tells me. "They think he had a heart attack." She pauses for a moment before adding, "Your father and I probably won't be home tonight." Which meant I would be alone in the house tonight, and that meant-

"Unbelievable," I grumble, putting the phone away again. Everyone looks at me expectantly. "I've got the house to myself all night. Granddad's in the hospital."

"Is he okay?" Phoebe asks. Emily has a triumphant smile on her face, and it takes everything in me to not slap her across the face.

"He had a heart attack," I tell her. "Mom and dad are going to be with him tonight."

Emily opens her mouth to say something, and I cut her off with, "That doesn't mean I won't kick him out myself."

"You can't do that," Emily objects. "He has every right to be here."

"No," I say, shaking my head. "This is _my _house. Not his. He can only stay as long as I allow him to." For the first time, I notice that Scott's been edging away from me, almost like he was scared.

"Listen." He finally speaks. "I don't want to cause problems. I can just leave if it's that big a deal." He gives me an inferior glance; like he's afraid I'll hit him. But it's not him I want to hit.

"No, it's fine," I tell him. "Don't worry about it."

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP._

"What was that?" Phoebe asks, looking around. I jerk my head toward the study, where the TV is still playing. I walk toward it just as another long beep sounds. The screen reads "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM" in big red letters. We crowd around the TV as the picture changes to a newscast. Tanner McCrae and Keira Merritt appear in the center, their matching flames of hair dominating the screen. Keira's got fiery waves the fall past her shoulder, and Tanner has permanently slicked-back auburn locks bright enough to light up a room. They look disheveled, though they try to stay professional. There are no papers in their hands, and I get the feeling that this is a very serious matter.

**A/N: I'm the other half of the author. Neither of us own anything from The Walking Dead. I know it sounds like I'm pissed off in this chapter, but jasonx said to write what I really do all day, and I'm usually mad about something. Enjoy!**


	3. Chapter Three: It Begins

Chapter 3

It Begins

I read the reply from Jaycee. _Stop texting in class._ Well then. She's always been a goody-two shoes. I think about sending back a smart ass reply, but decide it's not worth it.

Making sure Mr. Quillen isn't watching, I slip the phone back into my pocket and look in front of me, where Danielle sits, taking notes. Ok, maybe all girls are goody-two shoes. I look to my left, where Luke sits, trying to listen to the ramblings of Mr. Quillen.

Then I look to the clock and see that lunch starts in five minutes. Can't wait. A break from this garbage is much needed and appreciated. As usual, it will take forever for the five minutes to pass so I can get out of here. But I can wait. _I think I can, I think I can._

Harry DiCodi, who sits behind me, taps my shoulder and asks if I have a pencil. I hand him the only one I have. Not like I'll be taking notes anyway. I look back at the clock and feel anger rush through me. Only a minute has passed.

I begin to study the room. It's quite boring. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling are all white. Mr. Quillen must've thought it was boring too, because all around the room, bright and colorful posters have been hung up. They don't really help if you ask me.

Next, I look down at my feet, left crossed over the right. I notice a speck of white sock poking out through the solid black of the rest of the shoes. _Damn, didn't I just buy these,_ I think to myself. I'd have to invest in a new pair- if I ever got enough money.

I work part-time at a local grocery store called Sallee's as a courtesy clerk, a fancy term for bagger. My parents and I made a deal whenever they bought me a car that I would pay for all of its' expenses, no complaining. Lately, I haven't been getting very many hours, so usually, I have no money left over for anything I'd like to buy.

That's how I'll get out of afterschool with Mr. Quillen! I'll tell him I have to work tonight, even though I don't. Ha, this plan will be foolproof.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the bell rings for everyone to go to lunch. I jump out of my seat and fly out of the room. I stop at the gym and wait on Brianna to come out. When she does, she greets me with a kiss.

"Looking good," I smile.

She's wearing the gym uniform: a Billing's Devil T-Shirt and black basketball shorts. Her black hair is in a ponytail.

Together, the two of us walk up the hall and around the corner. We stop at the beginnig of the next hall to talk to some friends. This was where we sat at during lunch and conversed.

Haley, Luke, Danielle, and Sean were already there, plus Dylan, an extremely tall boy with short brown hair, and Ciera, my friend since Kindergarten and Brianna's since high school.

"Hurry and get your food, Brianna. I have some crazy news to tell you," Haley says urgently.

"Ciera! I didn't think you were here today!", Brianna smiles at her.

"I came in late," Ciera replies. She has shoulder length bright red hair, obviously dyed, and big blue-green eyes. She's skinny as crap.

We talk for another few moments, then Brianna and I set off for the cafeteria to get something to eat.

Halfway there though, a girl whom I don't know comes running inside from the courtyard. She looks frightened. She shouts down the hall.

"Everyone, come outside, quick! Something weird is going on!"

Brianna and I look at each other, then follow the girl out the set of blue double-doors, into the courtyard. Instantly, I notice a cluster of kids forming near the front entrance to the school.

"What's going on?", Luke asks, running up next to me. Haley, Sean, Danielle, Cierra, Cody, and Cara with him.

"I don't know. Why don't we go find out?", I reply.

The nine of us push our way to the front of the crowd, so we can see what is causing all of the commotion. I notice quickly what everyone is watching. Principal Matthews stands in front of the double doors, trying to talk to a man. Something looks wrong with the man though.

For starters, his clothing is torn, his skin looks very pale, and he seems to be drooling. His whole body looks limp.

"If you do not leave the premises at once, I will call the police to come and escort you away, sir!", Principal Matthews shouts at the man.

The man _snaps_ at him. What is going on?

Suddenly, I become aware of my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pull it out to see a new text message from Jaycee. I open it.

_Oh my God._, it reads. I quickly type back _What?_

I go back to watching the scene unfolding on the school grounds. Mr. Warren, the gym teacher, and Mrs. Anderson, the 10th grade English teacher, have joined Principal Matthews.

"This is your last warning. Leave now, or the cops will be called," Principal Matthews threatens, pointing a finger at the creepy man.

What happens next is so crazy and wild that it took my brain a second to process what had actually happened.

The man leaned forward and _bit_ Principal Matthews' finger off. Blood began to squirt from the severed stump on his hand. All around me, I heard kids gasp and begin to scream. "Holy fuck", Cody whispers.

Principal Matthews screams, staggers backwards and falls onto the ground. The man falls on top of him and sinks his teeth into Principal Matthews' neck. Mr. Warren pulls the man off of him and slams him up against the wall. The man leans forward and bites a huge chunk out of Mr. Warren's cheek.

Kids start to run back into the school, terrified by what they've just witnessed.

Suddenly, I hear Mrs. Anderson scream, "Oh my God! He's dead!" She sits on the ground, next to Principal Matthews' body. She sobs and continues to scream. The man pushes Mr. Warren to the ground and tears into his stomach, ripping out his intestines.

I gag. Brianna presses her face into my shoulder, not wanting to see the scene unfold further. My phone vibrates. From Jay.

_Some new virus has spread. It's like something out of a horror movie. People die, but then they come back. And when they come back, they eat other humans. They're doing a special segment on TV right now._

It takes three times reading the message before it makes sense to me. Oh, shit. I look up.

As if on cue, Principal Matthews grabs Mrs. Anderson's arm and bites a huge chunk out of it.

"I thought he was dead!?", I hear Ciera scream.

I can't watch this anymore. I turn to run, Brianna right behind me. The rest of the group follows me. We run into the school, trying to fight through the rest of the kids, also making a dash for safety.

As we run forward, Catrina Williams and her boyfriend, David Evans, run up to us, against the crowd. They both look terrified.

"Don't go that way!," Catrina shouts.

"Why not?", Haley asks before any of the rest of us can.

"We were eating lunch in the cafeteria, when all of a sudden, Mr. Abbot walked in. We could tell something was wrong with him before we noticed the blood all over his shirt. One of the kids went up to him to ask what was wrong and...and...he just bit into the kids' arm, tearing a big hunk out. The whole cafeteria went quiet.

No one moved for a minute, but then he grabbed another kid and bit her. That's when we all started to panic. We got up and started to run. It took forever to get out of the cafeteria. Some kids got trampled in the process, they died. But they came back...and they started eating people too.", Catrina finishes, in tears.

Suddenly, the doors to the cafeteria, all the way at the other end of the hall, fly open and several bloody kids and teachers alike stagger into the room and begin to tear into students.

"We gotta run!", David yells.

All eleven of us turn and run down the hallway.

"Where can we go that's safe?" ,Cara shouts out.

"We're heading outside!", David replies.

"No! We just came from out there. There's some out there and it does not look pretty.", Sean states.

"What about the life planning classroom? It has sidedoors we can use to get into the rest of the classrooms down this side of the hall!", Brianna offers.

We slide to a stop just outside the life planning room and sling the door open. Everyone starts to file into the classroom. Only David, Sean, and Cody are still in the hallway when it happens.

Out of no where, Katelyn Reed appears, covered in blood. She grabs David and tries to bite him. He fights back, helped by Sean and Cody. Together the three of them knock her away.

"Get in, now!", Luke shouts, holding the door open. The three boys scramble in, Luke slams the door and locks it behind him.

The eleven of us sit in total silence for a few minutes. David breaks the silence first.

"Shit..."

"What?", I ask.

"She scratched me.", he says, looking worried.

"So?", Luke asks.

"Back there, whenever one of them got bit, but got away... they turned into one of those flesh eating things...", David says.

At those words, my heart begins to race. I feel the atmoshpere in the room become tense.

"That doesn't mean you'll turn.", Catrina says hopefully.

"I hope not.", he replies.

He goes over to the door and slumps down in front of it.

_Oh God. If he does turn into one of those...**things**, we'll be trapped in here with him,_ I think. Fear floods into my chest.

_**A/N- Hope you guys are enjoying the journey so far. Next chapter is back to Jaycee. :)**_


	4. Chapter Four: Outbreak

**A/N: I don't own anything from The Walking Dead! Neither does jasonx65. (Even though he never writes it in.)**

Chapter Four: Outbreak

Jaycee

"Oh my God," Emily says. "What are we going to do?" She sits on the sofa, arms wrapped around her knees. Scott sits beside her, rubbing a shoulder. I start to say something, but Keira's voice stops me.

"We're getting more and more reports of the attacks," she announces, visibly shaken. Tanner sits beside her, unable to sit still. "We have a helicopter out now, surveying the damage." She turns her head to the side and calls out, "Can we show it?" and then the screen switches to an aerial view of the city.

On the screen is utter chaos.

"What the hell?" I say, mostly to myself. Micah Crump appears with a torn suit. Behind him, people are screaming and running and some of the people are attacking. "It's a bloodbath out there." And then they show the courtyard of Billings High. Principal Matthews is clearly visible, lying on the ground. He has his hand wrapped in something. A bunch of kids are gathered around some of the teachers, but they look like they're fighting the teachers off. One kid, off to the side, catches my attention. "Jake!"

"What?" Phoebe asks from the kitchen. She'd gone in there for something, and now she was missing everything. She came into the living room and stood beside me.

"Jake's still at school!" I nearly shout. I get closer to the screen and watch as he follows a large group of kids back inside the school. He looks okay, so that's good. I reach for my phone right as it rings. It's weird how that works out sometimes.

"Shit," is the first word out of his mouth. "Everyone's turning into those-those _things_."

"Are you okay?" I demand.

"Yeah I'm fine," he tells me. I breathe a sigh of relief. "We're in the life planning classroom."

"How many are with you?"

"The whole group."

So, as far as I knew, everyone was either safe and hidden, or out eating the rest of them. I walk over to the front door, look out, and scream. "What, what?" Jake shouts.

I pull the phone away from my ear. "Emily, Phoebe, go make sure all the doors and windows are locked!" I turn back and watch them-whatever they are- shuffle towards the house. There are at least a dozen, and they look like they could break right through the door. "Jake, they're coming," I say. "We're probably going to have to run."

"Us too," he says. "We're not safe here." He pauses for a moment and then says, "I gotta go. Call me when you get somewhere safe."

"Bye," I say, and we hang up. I turn to face Scott, since he's the only one still in here. "Alright, Scott. Here's a chance to prove yourself."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to go out to the garage," I tell him. "There's a crawl space on top, and that's where we keep camping stuff. Go up there and grab as much as you can, and bring it back in here." I look him up and down. He's scrawny, way smaller than me, and he probably couldn't win a fight with a fly. "Can you do that?"

"Yeah," he says. I go to the table by the door and pull a gun out of the drawer. I hand it to him without a word. He disappears through the door and I watch him walk down the path to the garage. He slips in the side door unnoticed, and I can't help but stare at the faces of those who have become walking corpses.

"Where'd he go?" Emily asks, coming back in to the room. Phoebe is right behind her.

"Everything's locked up tight," she says. "I saw them outside, though. We can't stay here."

"I know," I say. "Scott's getting supplies. One of us should go help him." Emily shoots me a glare that I ignore. Of course she's mad that I sent her most recent soul mate outside, where's it dangerous.

He's back before someone can offer. He barrels through the screen door, arms full of stuff we'll need to survive. He dumps it all on the floor and announces that he cleared the lot. "Excellent," I say, bending down to paw through it. "We're going to need to make packs, so we can get out of here."

"I'll get the guns," Phoebe says. I point a finger behind me, towards the key rack on the back wall. She goes over and snatches them off the hook. "It's still in the study, right?" I nod and she hurries off.

"That was Jake on the phone," I say to Emily. She's on the floor beside me, sorting the bags. There are three tents, two tarps, and four heavy-duty backpacks. "Him and the rest of his friends are holed up in a classroom. It's already really bad."

"What's happening?" she asks again, and all I can do is look at her.

"I don't know," I tell her. "I really don't."

. . . .

An hour later, we stand at the front door, ready to go. In our packs, we have knives, canned food, matches, and bottled water. Emily and I have the tarps strapped to our packs, and Scott carries two of the tents. Phoebe has the other one. I take a look around once more, and then I realize.

"Mom," I say, pulling out my phone. It still has a full charge, and the cord is in my backpack, in case we find a place where it can be used. I dial her number quickly. She answers on the first ring.

"Oh God, Jaycee," she moans. "It's awful out here. There are people eating each other!"

"I know," I say. "It's happening here, too." I pause. "It's not safe at the house. I'm going to come get you, and then we're going to get somewhere safe."

"The hospital is safe," she insists. I stay silent for the moment, because she's wrong. "Just come and get in before the shut everyone out."

"Mom, it's not going to be safe there," I tell her. "The people there are already weak. If even just one of those things gets in, you're all dead. I'm on my way. I love you." I don't wait for a reply. I slam the phone shut and jam it back into my pocket. Emily looks at me. She has that look on her face that I've never liked. I know what she's going to say.

"Jaycee," she starts, I hold a hand up.

"We're not leaving without her, Emily."

"She can't walk without a cane, Jay," Phoebe says. I jerk my head toward her. "She'll slow us down."

"I can't believe you two," I gasp. I look to Scott, and to my surprise, he defends me.

"Guys, come on. You can't expect her to leave her mother behind." Now that Scott's on board, so is Emily. That's one good thing about it. She nods her head and looks at Phoebe.

"Let's just go before it's too late," she says, ushering us through the door. I don't bother locking it. Phoebe passes out guns to us; Emily and I take pistols, and Phoebe holds on to a shotgun. We all have butcher knives in our pockets, and ammo in the packs. The corpses still shuffle towards us, and Phoebe doesn't even hesitate in blowing their heads off. Three bodies begin spewing dark blood, and the grass becomes a wasteland of body parts.

"Nice shot," Scott compliments, and we all share a laugh. I get the feeling we won't be laughing again for a long time.

. . . .

The hospital is more chaotic than it's ever been. People are shoving each other, and nurses are running around, trying to pull them off each other. We drove here, but we ended up parking far away, mostly to keep anyone from stealing the car. Everybody had gone crazy.

I start for the stairwell. At the elevator bank, people are actually trying to get on one; a woman with no hair shoves another woman out of the way. I yank open the door to the stairs and find it pretty empty. I can still hear the screaming.

"We're going to the third floor," I announce. "I need one person to come with me. Scott and Emily, you stay down here. If anything happens, go back to the car." I don't give them the keys. Desperate people will do desperate things. They both nod and I take Phoebe with me to the third floor landing. Once in the hall, I immediately begin calling out, "Valerie Adams!"

Nobody looks at me; they're too busy fighting over-

"Oh God!" Phoebe screams. She jerks my arm and I look where she points. It's a corpse. They're already in the hospital. It shuffles a few feet and falls over onto a group of people. The screaming intensifies, and I back away, heading back where we came. Right before my eyes, the corpse tears a chunk of arm from an old man with his teeth, and then it crawls over to rip a woman's neck out. Moments later, the two rise to their feet, turning.

"Jaycee!" I turn back, and see my mom standing in the doorway. She walks toward me, as fast as she can with a cane, and to my utter relief, dad is behind her, too. They both hug me, and then they hug Phoebe, and we run back down the stairs to meet the others.

Outside, I nearly run someone over. Actually, I do run them over. When the man stands up to brush himself off, I gasp. "Spencer?"

Spencer Elliot is a college friend. We're pretty close, but having online classes means I don't get on campus as often. Seeing him now was the first time in almost a month. He's ditched the blonde hair and now he has it dark, down to his chin. He wears baggy jeans and button-up shirt, which is a strange combination. "What are you doing here, Spencer?"

"I came to see if I could help," he says. Of course. He's in the Nursing program. So, of course he'd come to the most chaotic place in town to offer his services. He takes a look around. "But I don't think I'm of much help in this situation."

"Yeah, not unless you want to die," Emily snorts. He raises an eyebrow and she sticks her hand out. "Emily Scott. I'm her best friend."

"Save that for later," I scold, slapping her hand away. "Come on. The car's around the back."

A woman stumbles into view and screams. She holds up a bloody stump, and then she falls forward. It only takes a few seconds before she begins squirming. She crawls toward us, moving forward with her stumpy arms. I jump back and we take off for the car.

Once on the road again, I take a quick look around. Scott and Emily are in the very back, huddled together. Phoebe sits in front of them, holding the shotgun in her lap. Dad's beside her, staring out the window. Spencer is wedged between mom and me, in the front seat. Mom drives, insisting I let her be useful with something.

"Where are we gonna go?" Emily asks. I think about that while I watch the trees fly by. There's nowhere to go that's safe. Something horrible has happened to the world, and I'm sure it's happening everywhere. Where did people go in the past when there was a crisis? I look back at her.

"We're going into the woods."


	5. Chapter Five: Escape the School Part 1

Chapter 5

Escape the School

Jake

"I suggested we come in here so we could navigate down the hall straight through all of the class rooms and then get out one of the side doors.", Brianna says.

No one replies. Understandable. We're all terrified after what we saw. And now we're locked up in a classroom like a bunch of prisoners. And David is hurt.

_ What if he turns into one of those things?_, I think to myself. _Don't think like that. You gotta stay positive. Being negative will only make this worse. _

The silence is broken by Catrina, who begins to sob. She hugs David.

"Stop crying. I'm not dead yet.", he smiles up at her.

"I know...but-but I don't want you to die! David...", she sobs more.

I feel a pang of sadness for Catrina and David. What if I was in his position? I wouldn't want Brianna to be so upset like that. I look over to her.

She looks back, a worried look on her face. I smile, hopefully, at her. She smiles back, then moves closer. I wrap an arm around her and whisper into her ear, "Everything is going to be fine, baby."

"I believe you."

Suddenly, everyone jumps as a fist begins to beat at the door. "Let us in!", a boys' voice yells. I recongnize it as Harry DiCodi's.

David and Catrina move out of the way as Luke runs over to the door and starts to open it. Sean puts an arm on his hand to stop him.

"What are you doing?", Luke asks.

"You can't just let him in. What if some of those things get in here?", Sean explains.

"Please! Everyone is dead or dead but not dead out here! There's only four of us! Let us in!", Harry pleads.

Luke shakes Seans hand off of his arm. "Are there any of those things around?", he asks.

"Not close, yet, but they will be if you don't let us in!", Harry screams.

Luke looks at Sean, who shrugs. Luke unlocks the door and opens it. Four kids come running into the classroom. Three boys and a girl.

I know all of them, as they're all seniors. Harry DiCodi, the boy from Prob/Stats who asked if he could borrow a pencil. He has short brown hair, glasses, and looks like the average nerd.

Next is Ben Harrison, another nerd. He has shoulder lengt blonde hair, and also wears glasses.

Also present is Alana Rose, a cheerleader. She has black hair in a pony tail, and she's wearing her cheerleading uniform.

The third, and final, boy, is one of the football players. Brody Dean. He's tall, buff, with black hair and blue eyes. He carries with him what I think is a mop handle, minus the cleaning part. It looks as if he's unscrewed the mop from the handle, leaving a sharp point to stab with. Except right now, he's covered in blood and doesn't look all that great.

"What happened to him?", Danielle asks, eyeing him curiously.

"I was protecting those three from those...zombies. ", Brody answers.

"You weren't bitten, were you?", Sean asks.

"No...of course he wasn't!", Alana answers for him.

"We just gotta make sure. We can't take any chances.", I say.

Ben begins to cry. "What the fuck is going on?! This was supposed to be just another regular day, and now it feels like hell is here, on earth!"

Haley hugs him and tells him to calm down.

Suddenly, Sean's phone rings. He answers it and tells whomever he's talking to that he's safe in a classroom with the rest of us. He tells them he loves them, and then he hangs up.

"That was mom. She wanted to make sure I was ok. She sounded...different. I could tell she was...crying. Oh, God.", Sean sinks to the floor, putting his face in his hands.

As if that reminded us, we all pull out our phones and begin to call our families. Only four of us get answers. Me, Ciera, Luke, and Cara.

Luke hangs up with whomever he was talking to, and also begins to cry.

Cara is talking happily to someone, but becomes frustrated when the call is lost.

Mom tells me that she loves me and to head for someplace safe, and that she'll find me.

Ciera's call is the most interesting. After she hangs up, she tells us what she learned.

"I just got off the phone with my sister, Laura. Her and her fiance, Andrew are at Sallee's, the grocery store."

I work with both Laura and Andrew. Andrew was one of the managers of the store. That's probably how I managed to get a job there.

"Anyway, she said that he had a key to it, and had locked themselves in with a couple others. She said that we should find a way to get there. We'd be safe. ", she says, looking hopefully at all of us.

"It sounds nice, but that's far from here. ", Cody sighs.

"Not really. Like three miles away.", I reply.

"You think we can walk all that way with all those things out there? There's fifteen of us in here, Jake. We're bound to lose someone along the way.", Cara glares at me.

"Well, Jake, Sean, Luke, Ciera and I can all drive. We could get there.", Brianna glares at Cara.

"Great plan, but the roads are probably horribly backed up. I bet half of the town is trying to drive away right about now.", Danielle interrupts.

Suddenly a huge arguement breaks out between everyone. No one notices Brody convulsing in the corner of the room. No one notices how he falls to the ground, how his eyes roll back in his head, how he stops breathing.

Only when he comes back, and grabs Alana's leg, and bites a huge chunk out of it, when she screams, does the arguement halt.

Everyone looks at what's unfolding in front of us. Haley and Ciera both scream. A bunch of people freeze up. Some of us, including myself, swear. David is the first to do something. He grabs the weapon that Brody had brought in with him and swings it at Brody's head.

_Thwack!_ is the sound it makes as it connects with his head. It doesn't seem to faze him. He just lets go of Alana's leg and turns his assault onto David.

Brody makes a grab for David, snapping at him, but David dodges out of the way. David hits him with the mop handle again, but it does little damage. Brody advances on David, dangerously close. David rears the pointy end of the mop handle back, then jabs it into Brody's chest, right where his heart is.

Blood oozes out of the wound, staining Brody's white shirt a crimson red. Unfortunately though, that too, seems to have no effect at all. David curses, repeatedly stabbing Brody. Nothing at all seems to work on him though. He jabs once more, this time aimed at his head. The sharp point goes through Brody's eye. Blood and gore begins to dribble down his face. His whole body goes stiff.

David pulls the weapon from Brody's head. The former football player falls to the floor, where a huge puddle of blood begins to pool around his head. David drops the weapon on the floor and sighs.

"Holy shit. I can't believe I just did that.", he says.

I rush over to the wounded Alana. "I thought you said he wasn't bitten!?", I yell.

Brianna grabs my shoulder and gives me a look.

Alana says, between moans of agony, "I...I-I didn't...didn't want you-you to throw him...him out because...because it happened..."

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We didn't want to be thrown out of here though. But that isn't important anymore. She was bitten. ", says Harry, looking gravely at Alana's leg.

Alana looks up at him, worried. "Just because I was bitten... doesn't mean I'll become one of... them. Maybe I'm... immune to the ...disease!", she shouts.

"We have to stop the bleeding, somehow.", says Brianna.

"Yeah, yeah... stop the bleeding... I'll feel better as soon as... as soon as we stop the bleeding!", Alana pleads.

Suddenly, the door to the classroom begins to shudder as something beats against it. Catrina looks out the small window on the door and shrieks. I run over, push her aside and gasp. Standing out side the door are several walking corpses. All of them look pale, are covered in blood, and flesh hangs off of them. But the thing that stands out to me the most are their eyes.

They're a strange yellowish-red color. I feel as if they are staring straight into my soul, as if they know everything I've ever done. Finally, I look away. Harry, Haley, Ben, and Ciera are trying to fix Alana's leg with the various items they've found around the room.

Cody and Cara sit huddled together in one corner of the room. Catrina hugs David, who is starting to look pale and sweaty. Brianna gives me worried looks. Luke and Sean are arguing over what to do next. Danielle is looking out the window into the courtyard.

"There's alot of those geeks out there too.", Danielle states, looking away from the window. "I don't know how good our chances are of escaping this place."

"What do you think we should do, Jake?", Brianna asks me.

"I don't know... I think Sallee's would be a safe place to go, but there's no way we could get there safely right now. But we definitely can't stay here.", I answer. I really don't know what we should do.

Suddenly, I wonder what Jay is doing. I pull out my phone and dial her number. She picks up on the first ring. Before either of us say hello, the (as Danielle called them) geeks bang loudly on the door.

"Shit", I say into the phone, but it's not really said to Jaycee. "Everyone is turning into those-those things.", I say, more to myself, again, than to her.

"Are you okay?", she asks me, urgently.

"Yeah, I'm fine. We're in the life planning classroom.", I explain.

"How many are with you?"

"The whole group.", I say, not really wanting to name off every single person in the room.

Suddenly, I hear Jay scream. "What!? What!?", I yell into the phone. For a moment I think she's gone, but then she comes back.

"Jake, they're coming. We're probably going to have to run.", she tells me.

"Us too.", I reply, "we're not safe here."

I suddenly hear glass break. I look over to where the sound came from, and see that one of the geeks has managed to break through the tiny window on the door, and is now reaching into the room.

"I gotta go. Call me when you get somewhere safe.", I tell Jaycee.

"B-", I hang up before she finishes. "We have to go, now, before they get in here!", I shout.

"But where?", Danielle asks.

"My house is right across the street and up the hill from here!", Sean shouts. "We can go there for now!"

There's no time to argue. "Right," I shout.

Ben is the first to reach the side door that leads into the home-ec room. He flings the door open, running inside. Everyone else starts to pour in after him. As I run towards the doorway, Alana grabs my leg.

"Please! Don't leave me!", she moans.

That's when I notice that due to the wound on her leg, she can barely walk, and when she does, it's with a limp. She'll slow me down if I try to help her. But I can't just leave her here to die. I put her arm around my shoulder and start to help her navigate into the home-ec room.

"Thank you... thank you... I don't want to die...", she whispers.

The geeks break through the life planning class room door. I hear them growling and moaning. Alana looks over her shoulder at them and shrieks.

"They're coming! They're coming!", she screams.

We're almost to the home-ec room. If we can just make it in and shut the door, it'll buy us some time. But I don't know if we're going to make it with her leg the way it is. She's trying to move as fast as she can, I can see that from the look of concentration on her face. But it just isn't working. The thought crosses my mind to drop her, let the geeks eat her. But I'm not that kind of guy. No one gets left behind.

Luke comes back into the life planning room from the home-ec room, puts Alana's other arm over his shoulder, and together, the three of us make it back to the room. To safety. For the moment.

Once we're inside the room, Ben shuts the door and locks it. Luke and I let go of Alana, who presses her back against the door and slides to the floor, exhausted.

"I just need to rest for a second...", she says.

"Thanks for the help, man", I say to Luke.

"No problem. Can't leave you behind", he smiles at me.

Everyone jumps when we hear the geeks hit the home-ec side door. We all jump again when another group hits the main door. Now we have two different groups of geeks to deal with. _Great._

"We need to hurry up and go. We're all gonna end up dead if we don't get the hell out of here.", Sean states.

"He's right...", David whispers. He looks pale, and he's very sweaty.

As if on cue, the geeks break the glass on the side door entrance and reach in. One hand manages to grab a handful of Alana's hair, who begins to shriek. Everyone stares in horror as the hand jerks her up off the floor. She fights with the hand, trying to get it to release her hair. It looks like a losing battle.

Sean heads for the next side-door, most everyone following him. I stand in the middle of the room, struck between helping Alana and moving on. Her eyes catch mine. They plead with me for help. I start to move towards her, when the geeks at the main door break through it and begin to seep into the classroom.

"I'm sorry!", I shout to her, and run to the next room with everyone else.

Right before Sean slams the door shut, I see one of the geeks bite into Alana's neck. She screams in pain, her eyes locked on mine. Then the door shuts.

_Because of me, Alana is dead. How am I going to live with myself?_ Great. My mind is already making me feel guilty. _Come on, Jake, there was nothing you could do. Those things were coming in, and the ones on the other door already had a hold of her. If you'd done anything, you'd both be dead right now. _I look up to see Brianna smiling at me.

"You feel guilty, don't you?", she asks.

"I left her to die.", I say.

"She was already bitten. She would have died anyways. Atleast now she won't have to suffer.", Brianna replies.

She gives me a hug and kisses my cheek. "Everything is going to be ok."

_Yeah, everything is going to be fine._ We run towards the next class room.

_**A/N- I do not own anything of AMC's The Walking Dead. This is just a fanfiction. Anyways, I hope you guys (if anyone's reading this still), I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. This chapter was originally going to be much longer than it is, but I decided to split it into two chapters. You'll hear from Jake and his crew again in chapter 7. See ya then! Don't forget to review! :)**_


	6. Chapter Six: Safe

**Chapter 6: Safe**

It takes us a long time to get through town. We don't live in a very big town, nor do we have a very large population, but the way everyone was fighting- out in the middle of the street- nobody was getting anywhere. And the first thing that came to my mind was: _I guess I'm a college drop-out now. _The one thing in the world that didn't matter right now, and it was the only thing on my mind.

Well, that's not entirely true. I wanted to go back where we'd been, towards the school. Last I heard, Jake and his friends were trapped on one end of the building. There was no point in voicing this opinion, though, because I knew nobody would let me go back to the middle of the outbreak. All I could do was hope we got out soon so I could get ahold of him. Nobody really understood our relationship, and I never bothered to explain it. Basically, he was the little brother I'd always wanted. He was like family, and I couldn't stand not knowing what was happening at the school.

"Jay," someone says, and I turn to look at them. It's not the first time they've said my name; I can tell by the expression of irritation on their face. It's Spencer, still sitting between mom and me. I glance toward her and see that she's concentrating very hard on keeping her cool in the midst of all these people. Her fingers are curled around the steering wheel so tightly they've turned white. "_Jaycee_."

"What," I say, looking back at him. He has his cell phone out. For a moment I think he means to give it to me, but why would he do that?

"We're almost there," he tells me, putting the phone in his pocket. He points a finger out the window, and I look. We're slowly moving towards the one and only campground in Wexford, known simply as "_Wexford Family Campground_". Nobody seems to want to go inside, but we're still stuck. Around us, cars carry tons of people out of the city limits. Some walk on foot, but nobody turns at the gate. When I'd told them we had to go to the woods to be safe, there were a lot of complaints. Mostly from Emily, but of course Scott agreed with her. And then someone mentioned that mom couldn't get around the way she was, and I finally decided that maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world. Spencer suggested the campground, and we'd come anticipating a crowd. Now it looked like we'd be the only ones there.

"It's deserted," Emily comments from the back seat. "It's probably not safe."

"I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume that nowhere is safe now," I snap, and I can just see her features turning to a frown. I don't care, though. She has to grow up at some point, and it would be better if she did it before something ate her. "We're going to stay here tonight, at least."

"I don't want to sleep on the ground," she complains, and I bite my tongue. Now's not the time to get in a fight with her. I keep my eyes on the gated entrance, and finally, we pass through it. Nobody follows us.

Mom pulls the car into a spot halfway down the parking lot. She turns the engine off and we all pile out of the car. Right away, Phoebe starts for the building to our left, where the showers and bathrooms are. "I'll be back," she calls over her shoulder, and I give a pointed look at Spencer. He takes off after her.

"We can hole up in that building," mom announces, gesturing in the direction Phoebe had gone. She turns to me. "How much did you bring?"

"We have three tents," I tell her. "So your idea is better." Mom and I usually butt heads if we're in the same room together for more than five minutes, but we both know that now is not an appropriate time to argue about everything. I hear a _clunk_ and I see that dad has popped the trunk open. We have a 2011 Ford Escape with optional third row seating. It's the only car anyone owned that would get us all in one trip. Dad starts pulling out the stuff we'd packed, and then he also drags out a bunch of stuff that's always in the trunk.

"We've got about six blankets back here," he says with a laugh. "And you people thought I was stupid for taking them everywhere." Something about his expression seems off. He just laughed, but it feels like it was forced. I start to ask about it, but then I see Phoebe running back, and I keep my mouth shut.

"It's clear," she informs us. Spencer is right behind her, panting. "The water is still working, so we'll get showers tonight." She grins at me.

"Well of course it's still working," I say. "This apocalypse has only been going on for half a day." It feels weird to say that. I'd read all kinds of books about this happening, but I never imagined I'd be thrown into the beginning of it. Of course, with nobody manning the water supply or the power cables, there was no telling how long anything would last. Or how long any of us would survive.

. . .

That night, we huddle around a campfire. Nobody wanted to go inside the dark gray building that had only two windows. It was Dad's idea to build a fire, and I felt very apprehensive about it. I still feel nervous, because for all we know, fire attracts those things that eat flesh. It's been about six hours since I talked to Jake. I think about calling, but it doesn't seem worth it. Chances are, his situation is still exactly the same, and I have this terrible fear that if I call, someone else will answer.

So I leave my phone in my pocket.

"Hey, what's wrong with dad?" I ask mom when we finally go inside to sleep. She gives me a sad look, and I don't know what to think about it. Somewhere inside of me, a voice screams that he's been bitten.

"We had to leave his father," is all she says. My jaw drops a little, because I'd managed to forget about that phone call. Was it really this morning when that happened? It felt like an eternity had passed since then. So granddad would become one of those corpses. Unless he died naturally first. That's all I could hope for at this point.

"Your last name is Scott," Spencer was saying. I walk down to the end of the building, where Phoebe, Emily, Scott, and I have fixed a massive blanket on the floor for us to sleep on. Emily and Scott lay together, of course, and Phoebe is as far from them as she can get without leaving the comfort of the blanket. "And his first name is Scott."

"Yeah, and?" Emily asks, raising an eyebrow. I can already see where he's going with this, and I cover my mouth with a hand to hide the smile. Even Scott stifles a bit of laughter.

"Doesn't that get confusing?"

"Not really," Scott answers, and I'm glad. I've been on edge with Emily since early this morning, and I'm really getting sick of her sarcastic remarks. He and Emily end up in their little world, and they ignore us for the rest of the night. Phoebe goes next, drifting to sleep right in the middle of the group. Mom and dad had made a bed about ten feet away, but I knew they were already asleep. Finally, it's just Spencer and me.

For a while, we just sit there in silence. There's a lantern off to the side, casting a yellow shadow on his face. It must have been left behind by someone. It's weird being around just him. We met during my first semester at Newport Community, which is one town over. The class was _Intro to Psychology_, and we became friends because he always had to ask for notes. I remember that first day so well because after the first class had ended, he looked at me and said, "I'm gonna need your notes."

I guess you could say I developed a crush that first day, too.

"What?" he asks, and I realize I've been staring right at him. I stifle a round a nervous giggles and gesture to the lantern beside us.

"I was just admiring how handsome you are in the artificial light." He reaches an arm out and slips his hand over mine. I gape at it for a moment, and he brings our arms back in. He keeps my hand in his, and I feel his fingers curl between my own. Another hand touches my chin, raising my head up. He's smiling.

"It suits you quite nicely, too," he says, leaning in. He kisses me quickly, brushing his lips across mine so gently I wouldn't even have known it had happened. If not for the tiny shock it sent through me when he did. When he pulls back again, his chocolate eyes twinkle for a moment. After a minute of silence, his expression turns into a smirk. "I figured it was worth a shot. I believe I was right."

We both laugh at that.

. . .

The next morning, my phone is dead.

"Shit," I say.

"What's wrong?" Spencer comes up behind me, and the memory of last night refreshes in my head. I feel the tremors begin, and I clench a fist to stop them. I close my eyes and concentrate.

"It's dead." I open an eye. "Where's yours?"

"It died last night," he tells me. I heave a sigh and look around. Everyone's up and moving around. I already know that mom's phone is dead. Hers won't hold a charge for more than a day.

"Anyone have a working phone?" I ask. They all start digging in their pockets, and then their expressions all turn into disappointment. Apparently, nobody charges their phone properly.

"I have an idea," Spencer says suddenly, squeezing my arm. I look at him. "I know this guy from physics class. He's like, super smart. He works with solar energy."

"How does that help us?" Emily demands, and I refrain from telling her to put a sock in it.

"If he's still alive, he can fit our phones with solar panels." Emily still has a blank look on her face. He sighs. "The sun will charge our phones and we can use them again."

"That's awesome," I say, "but do you even know where he lives?"

"Of course," Spencer tells me. "He's-was- my roommate." He walks over to the window and looks outside. "If we leave now, we can get back to town before noon." He turns to face us. "We'll have plenty of time to search and get back before nightfall."

"We have to go back?" Phoebe asks.

"And we have to get back here before it's dark." Pause. "I have a feeling things will be way worse when the sun goes down."

**A/N: I hope you guys are still enjoying the story! I don't own anything from AMC or The Walking Dead! :)**


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